Wireless Video Game Previews

Square teases us with a hint of heroine Aya Brea.

This is a preview from TGS 2007. To see all our
coverage, screens and videos from the show, check out 1UP's TGS.1UP.COM hub page.

Generally speaking, Square Enix reserved its most fan-oriented Tokyo Game Show 2007 content for its closed mega-theatre, a small arena that seated about 100 gamers at a time. Here, they were treated to glimpses of upcoming blockbuster sequels still early enough in development that the company can only show CG art, rather than actual gameplay. While most of the mega theatre content revolved around Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts, there were a few exceptions -- the most notable being the first trailer for Parasite Eve: The Third Birthday.

First revealed at May's Square Enix party as nothing more than a single sketch of heroine Aya Brea, the new Parasite Eve prompted quite a bit of gamer heartache over the fact that it's headed directly to cell phones. Whether that's ultimately a good or bad thing remains to be seen -- U.S. phones are gradually playing catch-up to Japan's slim-but-powerful devices, and cell phone games can be great when their developers remember to take their input limitations into account -- but it's much too early to say either way just yet, because all Square Enix has revealed of the game is a cryptic pre-rendered video clip.

Square's long-forgotten fighter returns... be happy?

This is a preview from TGS 2007. To see all our
coverage, screens and videos from the show, check out 1UP's TGS.1UP.COM hub page.

Remember Tobal No. 1? It was Square's answer to Tekken and Virtua Fighter, sort of -- a minimalist polygonal fighter that allowed a limited amount of evasion and movement along a Y-axis, with a fighting system that involved a moderate degree of grapples and parries. It wasn't the most sophisticated fighter around, but it ran at a shockingly smooth rate for a PS1 game, and more importantly, it seemed to lay the foundation for a top-notch series to come.

It received a great sequel, Tobal 2, but somehow the second game never made its way to the U.S., and soon the franchise was forgotten altogether -- or so we thought.

How does Namco roll? On DS, apparently.

This is a preview from TGS 2007. To see all our
coverage, screens and videos from the show, check out 1UP's TGS.1UP.COM hub page.

Let it be known that one of the great injustices of modern civilization was proudly on display at Namco Bandai's Tokyo Game Show 2007 booth.

That the company continues to drag its heels in creating a Katamari Damacy game for Wii or DS -- systems whose unique inputs simply beg to be translated into katamari-rolling! -- yet is releasing a portable iteration of the series. It's a tough pill to swallow.

TGS: Cell phone gaming takes a turn for the Heartless.

This is a preview from TGS 2007. To see all our
coverage, screens and videos from the show, check out 1UP's TGS.1UP.COM hub page.

If ever you needed proof that mobile gaming has arrived -- at least in Japan -- let this year's Tokyo Game Show be that proof. Not only is Kojima Productions putting what appears to be a PS1-quality Metal Gear Solid on Sony Ericsson sets, now Square Enix is putting what looks like a full-fledged Kingdom Hearts on phones as well.

We go, er, hands-on with the "pokewoman" DS game.

Doki Doki Majou Shinpan, occasionally known to people who can't be bothered to read Japanese as "that witch-poking game" or maybe "Pokéwoman," is a game of many mysteries.

Well, at least two mysteries. Chiefly, "do you really fondle little girls?" and "is it hot?" The answer to both is a resounding "eh." As a reward for clicking on a bunch of stuff for a really long time you're eventually granted the chance to pretend to touch a teenage girl's thigh. Things don't really go much past that and nobody's clothes come off. It's just enough to make you feel creepy, but not enough to gratify your creepiness.

About the only remarkable aspect of the whole experience is... well, right now it's the realization that I'm somehow in a position where it's my job to complain about being unable to adequately molest an underage girl with my Nintendo. I'm actually going to take a couple days off right now to contemplate the direction my life has taken and where I went wrong. You can read that as "50+ hours of gameplay!" if you like.

Paint the world in THQ's new Wii platformer.

This is a preview from E3 2007. To see all our coverage, screens and videos from the show, check out 1UP's E3.1UP.COM hub page.

VIDEO: Click on the image above to check out the new De Blob video straight from E3.

What's the game about: It was originally a project by some game design graduate students; THQ saw potential in the game and signed the developers to create it for Wii. The basic idea is that you're this blob that has to paint the world with color. As the story goes, the evil corporation Ink Corp has taken all the color out of the world and De Blob crash lands in the universe to bring it back. You have four primary colors that you use, but you can combine them to create other colors. Basically, you just go around in the environment painting everything by touching it -- this includes by bouncing into buildings. There are enemies in the game called Inkies that try to attack you -- you defeat them by jumping on them to squash them. There are also minichallenges throughout the levels, such as jumping on 10 Inkies in a minute.

What's new for E3: THQ revealed the game for the first time and we got to give it a try.

First look at a handheld, side-scrolling God of War.

SCREENS: Click on the image above to check out all God of War: Betrayal screens.

Kratos has battled some of mythology's biggest foes on PS2, from the Colossus of Rhodes to the King of Olympus Zeus, but soon you'll be able to play a brand new God of War adventure on the smallest gaming screen in the house -- your cell phone's. It may seem like an unusual place for the larger-than-life epic battles of the God of War series, but Sony Online Entertainment is confident that this tiny side-scrolling version will not only contain the same violent moves you've seen on PS2, but also advance the story in a meaningful way.

God of War: Betrayal's story, written by God of War scribe Marianne Krawczyk, takes place between God of War 1 and 2. The game begins with Kratos leading the Spartan army on its wartime campaigns. But early on, Kratos gets framed for killing the many-eyed creature Argos, a favorite pet of the goddess Hera. To clear his name, Kratos must chase down the mysterious assassin. This story is meant provide greater insight into why Zeus and the other gods are so upset with Kratos at the beginning of God of War 2.

Betrayal's graphics are above average for a cell phone game and are nearly on par with those of a 16-bit era console game. The characters are all animated in detail, with over 100 animations for Kratos, many of which involve over-the-top bloodletting, as the game retains a considerable level of violence for the casual-friendly platform. The context sensitive finishing moves are present as well -- enemies can be decapitated, flung across the screen or torn asunder, and quick directional button presses let you shred tougher enemies in typical GOW style. And while Betrayal doesn't have an ESRB rating, Sony did have to receive approval from the major phone companies in order to release the suitably gory game.

A brief glimpse at FFXIII mobile.

Square Enix is still playing it coy with Fabula Nova Crystallis information -- the videos on display at this year's TGS for the various Final Fantasy XIII projects are exactly the same as those shown six months prior at E3. And yes, FFXIII's fast-paced fusion of Final Fantasy tradition and mid-scale melee battles still looks awesome; Versus FFXIII is still drawing from the "lone, gloomy badass against the world" well popularized by Cloud Strife. The only glimmer of new info was fleeting, but at least it's something -- even if it's for the FNC project least likely to appeal to American tastes.

Agito Final Fantasy XIII is the mobile version of FFXIII, a seemingly multiplayer game which takes place in what appears to be a magic academy. But it looks more Kingdom Hearts than Harry Potter, thanks in large part to the art direction by FNC guru Tetsuya Nomura. The main character -- or at the very least, the character who served as the focus of the new Agito trailer -- is a blond teenage boy who walks into his academy and seemingly unleashes a disaster.

The trailer begins with a long pan over the ruins of what appears to be a machine-based nation, looking not unlike a very devastated Midgar from Final Fantasy VII. The radiant sun seen in the logos for the FNC titles appears as a sort of motif within the wreckage, but the scene soon shifts to a cliff in the distant upon which a majestic tower glows against the gloom. This appears to be the academy where the main character attends school; as he approaches the entrance with his classmates, he pauses for a moment and looks out at the horizon. Shaking his reverie, he finds himself alone and enters the school where an enormous piece of machinery appears to be enshrined, a glowing crystal hovering above its central gear.

The fighting experience finally comes to... phones?

To celebrate the 15 year anniversary of the series, Fatal Fury is coming to the mobile phone scene. Fatal Fury Mobile will launch this Fall for Brew and Java enabled phones and is based on the arcade version of Fatal Fury 2. The release is indicative of the growing importance of the cell phone and casual gaming market, as well as publisher Hudson Entertainment's push into those markets.

Given the precise controls required in console and arcade games in the series, it will be interesting to see if U.S. gamers latch onto the prospect of playing as any of the eight available characters on their little tiny cell phone screens. Playable will be Terry and Andy Bogard, Joe Higashi, Big Bear, Jubei Yamada, Cheng Shizan, Kim, and Mai Shiranui, all from Fatal Fury 2. Modes of play will include a standard load out for a fighter: Quick Play, Single Match, Training, Survival, and Tournament modes.

Hudson claims that the game has been "optimized for play on cell phones," including adjustments to combos and attack patterns. Presumably, we'll see the return of four bosses in addition to the eight selectable characters. Eight locations will be available to fight in, with "beautiful parallax scrolling backgrounds" if the game's press release is to be believed. This brings up the biggest concern we have about the game, which is whether it's going to be a playable fighting game or little more than a nod to history you can carry in your cell phone's memory chip. Features like scrolling parallax don't do much to keep our hopes up, but this is a good chance for Hudson to show that the low development costs of cell phone platforms can let a publisher release a good, inexpensive product for phones. We'll see how it goes.

FFXIII goes mobile. Bring a friend or three!

The second of Square Enix's Final Fantasy XIII creations, FF Agito XIII is slated for a far more modest target platform than the straight-up FFXIII: rather than coming to PlayStation 3, it's on its way to mobile phones. Or rather, "the next generation of mobile phones."

Finally, a chance to vanquish evil by raising melons.

RPGs are just so perfectly suited to mobile handsets. Which is why it's so weird that we have so few of them. Sure, there are a couple good ones floating around like Ys Book 1 and Doom RPG (which was admittedly more Doom than RPG,) but they're pretty few and far between. Which is weird, given that the Japanese mobile scene is glutted with the things. It's maybe worth noting that they know a thing or two about video games in general over there, and mobile games in particular.

Well, somebody over here finally caught on. The Shroud may be the first really ambitious console-like RPG to be coming to mobile. It's something the platform has been begging for.

The premise seems like a typical setup of evil monsters invading a nice pastoral world by ripping their way out of the titular Shroud, but there aren't any angst ridden guys with improbable swords in sight. Taro, the hero, is a farm boy. He clears fields of rocks and stumps, hoes rows in the earth, plants and waters seeds, harvests crops and raises livestock. There's a nearby town with people to meet, tools to buy, and festivals to attend. And of course, there's fishing and mining to be done. It all sounds kind of familiar, doesn't it? Let's not be afraid to call a spade a goddamn shovel. It's an awful lot like Harvest Moon.

Here's the story...

It's fun to imagine how a game like this could have come about. "So, we have the Brady Bunch license. What do we do with it?" asks the man at the head of the board room table. "A dating sim," offers one designer. "A real time strategy game," "No, a cart racer," exhort others. After a storm of rejected ideas an awkward silence descends, unbroken until, tired and dejected, one of them tentatively offers "a fighting game?" Cheers around the table. Slapping of backs. Smoking of cigars. Etc.

Then again, maybe it just took one look at the familiar squares filled with smiling Brady faces to conjure up associations with a fighting game character select screen.

Regardless of how it happened, the game exists, and honestly, that's all it needs to do. Do we even need to know how it plays? It has Peter Brady wearing a freaking Game of Death yellow jumpsuit.

It has Sam the Butcher wielding a ham, wearing the summer-vacation ruining tiki idol on a string around his neck. It has Marcia hurling footballs to wreak revenge for the broken nose incident. It has broom-swinging Alice assaulted by Greg's "Disco Finger Punch." This could be the worst fighting game ever and it would still be the best fighting game ever.

Dead man walking, driving, and shooting.

Spoiler time. At the end of Driv3r Tanner dies. Except, he really doesn't. Getting shot through the heart, rather than killing him, merely exiled him to mobile phones. Now on his way to Vegas and out for revenge.

The hunt for his not-really killer, Jericho, takes place through 24 missions in the game's "Undercover Mode." These missions are set in either the badlands outside of town, the Vegas strip itself, or the interiors of casinos. Each mission only takes a few minutes to complete, though a few are particularly challenging and will probably require multiple attempts to pass. Completing these will unlock several alternate game modes. They are all pretty self-descriptive and include Fugitive, Drive, Evade, Kill, Pursuit, Follow, Defend and Speed Demon.

Stick it to the man. With your cell phone.

The mobile version of the upcoming console title, Getting Up (differentiated by the absence of the "Contents Under Pressure" subtitle) is taking a pretty different course with its gameplay. This is, of course, the rule rather than the exception with mobile games. In the case of Getting Up, however, the change may be remarkable for resulting in something more immediately fun than what's being offered by its console daddy.

Another sidescrolling platformer, Getting Up follows the same story as the console title. To free the city of New Radius from an oppressive anti-art regime, Trane, the protagonist, must avoid his enemies and collect spray cans to return color to a gray world. Kind of like an urban ninja Rainbow Brite.

Smooth and painless platform jumping is something that's easy to take for granted on any other platform, but has been frustratingly rare on mobile. The only other game to accomplish it so well has been Ratchet and Clank: Going Mobile, though each game has done so in a very different way. Where the other stand-out platformer offers stop-on-a-dime control and long, hanging jumps with plenty of time for correction, Getting Up instead imparts inertia to the player's character. Trane accelerates when he runs, moving even faster down inclines, and retains this momentum in his leaps. It allows for fine control when moving short distances, or the quick negotiation of large areas after a second or so is taken to get up to speed. Ratchet's control is perfect for its world of large sprites and tight quarters, but Getting Up's completely different approach is ideal for it's tiny character and large, open, rapidly traversed areas.